Manyin shakes hands with some of the headmasters and principals attending the ‘Bengkel Memperkasa Pengurusan dan Kepomponan Sekolah Rendah Negeri Sarawak’ which was launched yesterday at IAB, Sarawak branch.
KUCHING: The Ministry of Education (MoE) is not doing justice to teachers, headmasters and principals in this country as it emphasises more on results rather than on their wellbeing, opines Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong.
He also said there had been no continuous courses that could actually give more exposure to them towards improving and upgrading their capabilities.
“Sometimes a teacher came out from college or university, got posted to a school for a long period of time, or probably until he or she retires, but never attended any courses. How do you expect the teachers, headmasters or the principals to do something new that can be introduced in schools so that the schools will be on par with others?
“After a few visits overseas with regard to education, we found out that not only in Sarawak or Malaysia we have not done justice to the teachers, headmasters and the principals, but also in many countries,” he said when launching ‘Bengkel Memperkasa Pengurusan dan Kepomponan Sekolah Rendah Negeri Sarawak’ at Institut Aminuddin Baki (IAB), Sarawak branch at Jalan Sultan Tengah near here yesterday.
The workshop was run by the ministry, Sarawak Education Department and IAB.
It was attended by 60 headmasters and principals from the southern zone of Sarawak (from Saratok to Kuching) – 42 were from primary schools and 18 from Chinese-medium primary schools.
Manyin added teachers must be given opportunity to attend courses and be exposed to new experiences so as to be knowledgeable on new technologies.
“Today is for you to create a better school, so if your school has not been performing then today is the time. Your purpose is to help your school to be a better school. Adapt yourself to what’s new in education.
“Because time has changed, all these knowledge definitely will be new. Education is meant for survival and efficiency and it is a life-long learning.
“I would like to suggest to the ministry (MoE) to let the teachers pay for their own courses, which they can take as long distance learning, but they must be given points. For example, if it takes eight years from now to go to Grade 44, and now they are attending some courses outside and by the time they have finished studying, maybe the number of years can be reduced by half to achieve the grades.
“This is done in some countries. Teachers are motivated to learn because they are given points,” he said.
On the workshop, he said it could help teachers, headmasters and principals in making their schools achieve good grades in public examinations.
As an example, he said Sarawak ranked 14 out of 16 among the states in UPSR results before 2016 and 15 out of 16 in SPM achievement.
“These worry us in Sarawak. If it goes on like this, how can our children compete with others from the west or anywhere else?” he asked.
In order to achieve better academic results, he proposed that the Sarawak government collaborate with the Education Department and IAB to train more teachers through certain programmes.
“IAB had mentioned that they have many programmes that they could provide. That’s why now we want to discuss on how we can conduct courses like this.
“Last year, we had our first series of the English Language Symposium, and the Headmasters and Principals Workshop in northern, central and southern regions, and all these were paid by the Sarawak government, which came to a sum of more than RM24 million,” he said, adding he hoped this series of courses could be completed by middle of next year.
Manyin, who is also the Tebedu assemblyman, urged headmasters and principals to emphasise on the importance of the English language to their teachers and students.
“Don’t worry about mistakes, this is not our mother tongue, the mistake will be there but gradually you will correct the mistake. That’s why we are trying to revive English.
“Luckily for Sarawak, our state constitution allows us to use English either as official language, official correspondence or in the state legislative assembly.”
Among those present were permanent secretary to Education, Science and Technological Research Ministry Datu Sudarsono Osman, Sarawak Education Department acting director Abang Mat Ali Masagus and IAB director Dr Abang Hud Abang Engkeh.